The divine services in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sig in New York City for the forefeast, eve, and great feast of the Lord’s Baptism (Theophany) were officiated by the hierarchs.

On Saturday, January 9, Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) celebrated Divine Liturgy in St. Herman of Alaska Church in Stafford, VA.

I express my brotherly condolences on the repose of the long-time, universally beloved and respected spiritual father and first pastor of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, His Eminence, Metropolitan Philaret, Emeritus Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.

On Sunday the 10th and Monday the 11th of January, nine baptisms were performed in the community of St. Polycarp of Smyrna Mission in Sanford, ME.

Several weeks ago, Priest John Trepatschko, rector of Holy Assumption Church in Stafford, VA, addressed a letter to Archpriest Victor Potapov, dean of the Capital Region of the Eastern American Diocese, regarding the return of his parish to the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

The Christmastide divine services continue in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City. On January 10, the Sunday after Christ’s Nativity, when the Holy Church honors the memory of St. Joseph the Betrothed, the Holy Prophet-King David, and the Holy Apostle James, the Brother of the Lord, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York celebrated Divine Liturgy

The Diocesan Media Office has begun publishing photo-reports of the Nativity of our Lord in parishes and monasteries of the Eastern American Diocese on the diocesan website. 

Festal services for the Nativity of Christ were held in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City. On Wednesday evening, January 6, the All-Night Vigil was officiated by Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York...

By God’s ineffable goodness, we enter once more into the joyous days of the great feasts of Christ’s Nativity and Theophany. I sincerely greet you all with this world-saving joy! The feat of faith and its fruit in life must be this joy: from the triumph of the Theophany ‒ God’s manifestation and incarnation ‒ and the sound of the Heavenly doxology and otherworldly peace being sung over Bethlehem.

Today the Church in Heaven and on earth is triumphant as She rejoices at the coming into the world of our Lord and Savior and lifts up praises and thanksgiving to God for His mercy and love for the human race. It is with spiritual trembling that we listen to the words of the hymn: "Christ is born, give ye glory!

Anna said yesterday that on the island of Tobago, her friend Elias, a member of the Thaer family who had been visited by missionaries the year before the last, was shot during the attempt to rob his store. He is already dying. Anna says that Elias is Orthodox, even wanted to become a priest, but in connection with the move from Syria this was not destined to come true.

In December, the Russian Church Abroad is solemnly celebrating the 725th anniversary of the glorious appearance of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God. It is one of the greatest Orthodox sacred treasures, which White Russian émigrés carried out of Russia in 1920 and which became the Protectress of the Russian Diaspora.

For 17 years, Fr. Hilarion labored at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. For many of the monks, seminarians, and pilgrims there, he was a spiritual confessor, father, and kindly instructor. The year 1984 brought great change to his life, starting with a move to New York City. Fast-forwarding a quarter century, now-Archbishop Hilarion is returning to New York once more, now from Australia, and will be elected the sixth First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad.

Father Jonah, thank you very much for finding time to talk to us. I understand that you are right now in your parish church. I see those beautiful frescoes behind you and you just finished your, what is it? Soup kitchen work? Or a food pantry?

Thank you for asking… In respect to my deanship at Holy Trinity Seminary, it would seem appropriate to start by saying that it was really my family upbringing which put me on the path now culminating in Jordanville. I grew up in very uplifting surroundings full of life-loving and literate people who never questioned what the Church offered them as "the way forward" in the wake of some massive upheaval and devastation in their past.